The SME sector is focussed on survivability and anything that can help a company to continue to exist. Maybe the SME sector has always been focussed primarily on how to survive with few exceptions to this. The question is what can HR do to assist the survival of an SME Company and even beyond survival [...]

We are getting close to the time when organisations go through their performance reviews. Performance development is based on the assumption that people cannot learn and develop unless they receive feedback on how they are progressing. As people are an expensive resource it makes sense to maximise their output by ensuring that every employee performs [...]

A recent study confirmed that recruiting a new employee has the highest impact of all HR instruments to the bottom line of a company. If you think about it for a moment it is logic. If you hire someone who may become an excellent employee or a future bad performer this is going to impact [...]

In my work as HR Consultant I meet a lot of companies as I solve staff issues for them. Very often when giving them advice on particular issues, like disciplinary issues it is wise for me to have a look at their contract of employment, just to make sure they are covered from all angles. [...]

I received a query regarding what work ethic should be expected from a fully qualified accountant. It related to an accountant who commenced the day at the exact agreed starting time and was consistently outside the office front door at exactly 5:30 pm, the precise time his contractual working day ended. Wouldn’t you expect something [...]

We are well into a new year and it is time to start organising this year’s performance management review. Even though you might say it is too early and you only do Performance Management at the end of the year when the yearly evaluation is due. If you wish to increase the average performance of [...]

Best wishes for the New Year! However, at the start of 2012 we know that another difficult year will be ahead of us with many uncertainties! Few know what is exactly is going to happen in 2012 and taking into account the worst case scenario with the possible collapse of the Euro a very difficult [...]

All Irish companies, regardless of their size, need to be aware of and address the issue of equality in their company policies. Equality legislation requires that no person is discriminated or treated in a less favourable way than another person on any of the nine grounds mentioned in the equality legislation. Equality issues, including discrimination, [...]

“It is not the strongest species that survives nor the most intelligent but the ones most responsive to change”- Charles Darwin. This was written on a wall in a conference room at Zimmer, Shannon when I was attending an information session for human resource managers. It makes you stop and think, especially in these turbulent [...]

In recent days the newspapers reported the dismissal of Ms Melanie Verwoerd by UNIFEC Ireland. Again this case highlights the importance of following the correct procedure when handling a dismissal or any other disciplinary issue. If the newspapers are correct then it seems that those important procedures weren’t followed. Sending an e-mail with the message [...]